Gaza’s Health Ministry said 16 people were killed in an attack on a UNRWA-run school in Nuseirat
Palestinian Territories:
Israel carried out deadly airstrikes in Gaza on Saturday, including one on a UN-run school that killed 16 people, according to Hamas-run authorities, as violence also gripped the northern border with Lebanon.
Fighting intensified as diplomatic efforts to stop the war, which enters its tenth month on Sunday, continued with Israel saying on Friday it would send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators.
In a statement announcing the move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said there were still “gaps” within Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
This came after a delegation led by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha.
“It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue talks. There are still gaps between the parties,” the spokesperson said.
There has been no respite since a week-long pause in November, during which 80 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The war continued unabated, with Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health saying 16 people were killed in an attack on a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which was housing displaced people in Nuseirat, in the center of Gaza.
The Israeli military said its aircraft were targeting “terrorists” operating in the vicinity of the Al-Jawni school.
The military previously said it conducted operations across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah in the south.
Shujaiya is among areas that the military had previously declared free of Hamas, but where fighting is again taking place.
Paramedics on Saturday reported 10 deaths in a separate airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Hamas press office and paramedics said four journalists working for local media outlets were killed in attacks overnight, and UNRWA said two of its staff were killed.
UNRWA, which coordinates much of the aid delivered to Gaza, says 194 of its staff were killed in the war.
‘Ball in Israel’s court’
The United States, which mediated negotiations alongside Qatar and Egypt, spoke about the prospects for a deal, saying there is a “quite significant opening” for both sides.
US President Joe Biden announced a path to a truce agreement in May, which he said was proposed by Israel.
This included an initial six-week truce, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza’s population centers and the release of hostages by Hamas.
Negotiations later stalled, but a U.S. official said Thursday that a new Hamas proposal “moves the process forward and could provide the basis for reaching the deal.”
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told AFP that the group’s new ideas were “transmitted by mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court.”
Pressure has mounted domestically for a hostage release deal, with regular protests and rallies across Israel.
“It is important that we reach an agreement so that all mothers can hug their sons and husbands, just as I hug my mother every morning now,” rescued hostage Almog Mair Jan said in a recorded message at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday .
The war began with Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP calculation based on Israeli figures. Hamas also captured hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 who the military says are dead.
In response, Israel carried out a military offensive that killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in the territory governed by Hamas.
The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of its housing and other infrastructure and left almost 500,000 people to suffer a “catastrophic” famine, UN agencies say.
The main obstacle to a truce agreement has been Hamas’ demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners vehemently reject.
The veteran hawk demands the release of the hostages and insists the war will not end until Israel has destroyed Hamas’ ability to fight or govern.
Sirens and air raids
Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have exchanged cross-border fire almost daily since the start of the war in Gaza, but attacks have increased in the last month.
This raised fears of a major conflagration among the bitter enemies that could draw in others, including Iran.
On Saturday morning, sirens sounded in northern Israel and the military said it had shot down a “suspected aerial target” and two “hostile aircraft” launched from Lebanon struck open terrain.
The military previously said it attacked “several Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon” overnight, all close to the border.
A source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in eastern Lebanon on Saturday, killing a Hezbollah officer. Israel said he was part of the group’s air defense unit.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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